As part of our assignment for this website, we were told to interview someone who lived through the Cold War. We asked them a series of 9 questions relating to life during the Cold War. Vangie interviewed her Aunt Diane and Uncle Mike. I (Sierra) interviewed my Grandma Jan. Seychelle interviewed her Grandpa Donald. Edgar interviewed a substitute teacher, Miss Carole Marrow. Throughout the interview, each one of us learned something new about the Cold War from the perspective of a person who was not a soldier, a president, or a nuclear specialist, but a person who was just as normal as you and me. These answers are straight from the source. Nothing was edited and nothing was filtered.

Interview Questions & Answers (Diane & Mike's answers are in purple, Jan's are in green, Donald's are in pink, and Carole's are in red.

Q1: When were you born?1951 & 1953.I was born in 1944.August 23, 193505/07/1949

Q2:What does the Cold War mean to you?Make you hide under your desk, cover your head, arm bands, Cuban Missile Crisis, "to die" The "Cold War" was more dangerous than being in a regular war (battle) because Communism was dangerous and could be anywhere. "They were out to take over" and destroy the U.S.A. Russia was our enemy. When the wall went up, East Germany believed in socialism and West Germany believed in capitalism. That's what it meant to me.Fear

Q3: When you were a child, did you hear people talking about nuclear weapons? How were the general feeling about these weapons?Yes on T.V. Really scared.Their mind set was different then ours and they could use their nuclear weapons at anytime and that would be the equivalent to the end of the world.Yes, most Americans were for it, but they didn't enjoy the loss of lives.Yes, they felt like it was going to blow up the whole world.

Q4: Did you understand who the enemy was? How was the enemy typically portrayed in your society?Russia, news made them out to be scary people.Russia was our enemy. They were evil and bad. They wanted to destroy Capitalism.Yes, very well! The enemies were absolutely hated.“Communist” didn’t know what it was but I knew that we never were fighting them; big bad people came in trucks & pitch fork people and put them in it.Q5: Did your school have air-raid drills during this era? What were some of the procedures?In school, they would have drills to hide under your desk and cover your head.Around 1st grade, we had some air-raid drills and a few in 2nd grade then they kind of went away being replaced by earthquake drills. Khrushchev was the Russian leader and took his shoe off at a big and important meeting and hit the table and said, "We will bury you."Yes, get under your desk and hold your hand behind your neck, turn off all lights.Yes, we had air-raid drills got under the desk. At school mom would come and use binoculars and search the sky all day for enemy air planes.

Q6: When you were younger, did you ever hear about or see a bomb shelter? What supplies did people put in bomb shelters? Why? What feelings did you have about these bomb shelters?Yes. Water, enough food for 30 days, chemical toilets and any supplies that they needed.Yes, we heard about bomb shelters. Parents built a basement in their house about that time, but we were not rigid about drills, but it may of been at the back of their minds, but they sheltered us. Extra things were put in the basement.I didn't see any when I was young, but when I was 19, I saw the bomb shelters, went in them, and went in the shelter where Hitler committed suicide.Neighbor had a bomb shelter he had food, water, beds, batteries, radios. I thought they were cool.

Q7: Were you ever afraid of nuclear weapons?Yes.Yes we were afraid of nuclear weapons because there was no defense if you were hit.No, never afraid of them.Yes, still am.

Q8: Describe someone you admire during this time period.Parents. They tried to stay together. Kept strong.John F. Kennedy impressed me when he came through our town when he was running for President. He exuded charisma. I have not met anyone since then with that kind of charisma.President Roosevelt. Because he ended the war with the Germans.The man I looked up to was President Eisenhower.

Q9: What do you remember watching on television or hearing on the radio?Bombs on T.V. Thought it was cool, yet scary.The Bay of Pigs made an impression as I was in college at that time away from home. And the college I was attending had drills again and the dorm showed us where we were to go if problems arouse. Nothing like that had happened since 1st grade. I immediately called home for reassurance.We didn't have a T.V. but an announcer who said "...Good evening everyone and all the ships at sea..." they counted and announced all the deaths, that's what I mostly remember.Cartoons of the bad guy, Hitler mustache.